Musings & Rants by Tim Byrd

DOC WILDE AND THE DAUGHTER OF DARKNESS Added To Doc Wilde Kickstarter

The Doc Wilde Adventures Kickstarter project encompasses the first three Doc Wilde novels, all of which will be published by year’s end. It allows people to get involved with the series, and with me (the author), early and to contribute donations to help make the books (which will be fully illustrated by maestro artist Gary Chaloner) as awesome as possible. In return, they can get copies of the books, posters, signed sketches by the artist, all sorts of goodies.

After the first week, we hit our $3,000 goal. But that goal was the minimum amount needed for the project to actually succeed on Kickstarter, not a maximum needed to produce the books. The project is still live (through April 28th) and people can still come join the party and go Wilde.

To celebrate our success, I’ve added an option that all supporters who pledge at least $5 (that’s the lowest reward level, getting you one of the books as an ebook and a thank you in the acknowledgments) can take advantage of.

THE DARK AVENGER OPTION
You can now get the fourth Doc Wilde novel as part of your Kickstarter package, at a special rate. Add $5 to your pledge and you get the ebook; add $13 and you get the ebook and the trade paperback; add $20 and you get both plus a bookplate signed by both Gary and me. (For international orders, an additional $10 will be needed to cover shipping on the paperback).

The book will be released in the first half of 2013.

And what is the fourth book?

Doc Wilde and The Daughter of Darkness

In which something terrible happens to Doc, and the kids go looking for an ally of their family’s from years past, a rather dark character with a tendency to laugh while he shoots people. He’s not home, but his just as shadowy and violent teen daughter is…

Here’s how the book begins:

Two small figures inched their way up a wall of ice, three miles up the deadly face of a forbidden mountain. The wind was vicious, blowing snow so thick they could barely see, even with the highly advanced goggles they wore.

“How you doing?” Brian Wilde asked into the communicator inside his air mask.

“I’m freaking cold,” his younger sister, Wren said. “And I can’t see anything. How do you think I’m doing?”

“Think warm thoughts,” he told her.

The sound of a loud raspberry came through his ear phones.

It was cold, of course. Even wearing airtight climbing suits designed by their father, Dr. Spartacus Wilde, the world renowned scientist and adventurer. The suits were internally heated by a layer of intricate carbon nanotubes bonded with molecule-sized heat-producing nanites. But at altitudes this high, climbing an actual wall of ice, there was no way to completely avoid the deadly chill.

And though he wasn’t at all afraid of heights, Brian was all too aware of the drop below them. There was no way not to be, because an ice wall like this one was a treacherous place to climb. Shoot a climbing spike into the wrong spot, creating a web of deep cracks, and a huge section could calve away from the wall, dropping you in a smashing fall of thousands of tons of jagged ice.

This peak, Machapuchare, was one of the most remote and difficult peaks in the Himalayas, and in fact they were breaking the law by even being up here. Machapuchare was sacred, considered by the people of Tibet to literally touch the Heavens, to be the home of gods and devils and spirits of the sky. No one had ever climbed the mountain; the only attempt ever made was by a British team in 1957. They got within fifty meters of the summit, still a very long way in conditions like these, but stopped because they had promised to go no closer to the sacred peak. After that climb, all climbing had been outlawed on the mountain.

This wasn’t something the Wilde kids would have usually done , deliberately breaking the laws of a sovereign country, particularly not violating a people’s sacred ground. But these were special circumstances, and they felt they had no choice.

TIM BYRD

The author of the Doc Wilde adventure series, Tim is often barefoot, prone to irony, and interested in everything. He has been a soldier, game designer, independent filmmaker, and outdoor guide. He knows how to tie a tie, but doesn't care to.